• Don’t cross the streams. That’s good advice when dealing with pesky poltergeists and when two guys need to relieve themselves at the same time in the woods.

• No human stacks books symmetrically. This supports the belief that people with clean desks can’t be trusted and takes it one step further — they are not human.

• Political hacks, like the Mayor’s aide and Walter Peck of the EPA, always make bad things worse. I think the gaffes of the 2008 presidential campaign — attack disc jockeys, inflammatory fliers, urban legends being spread as truth, old photos appearing out of nowhere, ex-presidents running their mouth — bear this out.

Wait. My train of thought has been derailed. Oh yeah. Newspapers …

The New York Times stole its name, too

More plagiarism from the Grey, Thieving Lady. This time, the Times may haven stolen two lines from the Miami Herald for a NYT story about something something drugs. For those of you keeping track, this is No. 345 in a series of 456,798 items stolen by the NYT. Collect them all! Slate

Note to NYT: How to smear people

The paper caught heat for a flimsily-reported story about allegations that Sen. John McCain might have had an affair with a lobbyist who may have gotten favors from his committees. Lame. Stephen Colbert, however, steps up to the plate and tells you how it’s supposed to be done.

The newspaper’s new style guide calls for changing terms in the paper. “Illegal aliens” are now “illegal immigrants.” “Homosexuals” are now “gays.” “Gay marriage” doesn’t need quotation marks anymore. And “filthy, liberal, Godless socialists” are now “Democrats.”

P.S. I made one of those up. Guess which one?

P.P.S. I also appreciate the irony in the blog link — it uses a derogatory name for the Times’ ownership while criticizing the Times’ use of derogatory names.

Newspapering is like venturing into a part of town known for high crime levels — there’s always safety in numbers. Here’s an example: someone did a story on bed bugs and now everyone’s doing a story on bed bugs.

One Response

In Burnet and Llano counties (about 80 miles north of downtown SA) you apparently cannot get the Express-News anymore. According to several vendors (gas stations and grocery stores) they can’t get it anymore – and no home delivery either.

This doesn’t make much sense to me. You can however get Austin, Dallas and Houston papers…